Thread by @UR_Ninja

NEW: A Minneapolis Public Schools teacher talked to Unicorn Riot about the Minneapolis Police Department’s newly created PEACE Recruitment Program and the teachers union’s recent decision to oppose it. 🧵 unicornriot.ninja/2023/minneapol… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

“The police are desperate now and they’re coming for our kids.” Minneapolis Public School Special Ed Teacher & Union Member Jessica Garraway brought a proposal to @MFT59 opposing the MPD’s PEACE Recruitment Plan targeting high school students & helped draft a resolution. ↕️

On Dec. 16, 2022, @MFT59 passed Garraway’s resolution opposing the MPD’s high school student recruitment program. This comes more than two years after the Minneapolis School Board voted to end its contract with MPD and take school resource officers (SROs) unicornriot.ninja/2023/minneapol…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

The following is an excerpt from the press release by MFT59 following the unanimous vote:

“The Minneapolis Police Department has a known track record of abuses [against] people of color, highlighted especially by the killing of Black men like George Floyd, Winston Smith and… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Although most MFT59 board members are not abolitionists, @Deeplyjessica said the decision to oppose the PEACE program was clear for her colleagues.

“I think most people can see the rot in the MPD. People lost faith in law enforcement. Their whole job is to push people out of… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

The Minneapolis Police Department, at the direction of the Community Safety Work Group appointed by Mayor Frey, has put forward a program to help diversify the force. The department’s PEACE Recruitment Plan is a paid internship for Minneapolis high school students to learn about… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

The 21 member Community Safety Work Group chaired by civil rights attorney and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong released their report in June 2022. The work group recommended increasing sworn officers to 888 by “building a pipeline of future candidates who live in the city of… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Kaytie Kamphoff, an English teacher at Patrick Henry High School & co-author of the resolution opposing the recruitment program, noted the irony of the city investing in a police pathway program for Black & Brown students before adequately funding its teacher pathway program. ↕️

“A better ‘community pipeline’ [would] be…fully funding teacher pathway programs in community high schools with large populations of Black, Latinx, Hmong, Somali and Indigenous students,” Kamphoff told the Southside Pride newspaper. ↕️
southsidepride.com/2022/10/03/pol…

Teachers say MPD are too dangerous to work with children and students have repeatedly demanded that police not be employed inside schools. In April 2022 the Minnesota Department of Human Rights released a scathing report establishing “A pattern or practice of discrimination” by… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Kamphoff, also an abolitionist, takes exception to officials overlooking MPD’s history of violence while putting forward the recruitment program for high school students. “It is wild that Mayor Frey is asking our Black and Brown youth to engage and then enter a system that has… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Garraway said it doesn’t make sense that an organization with such a violent track record is allowed to work with vulnerable populations such as kids, noting that officers who “maimed and murdered” people are still on the force today. “MPD made international news for its human… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

North Minneapolis filmmaker and abolitionist D.A. Bullock tweeted his outrage about the program, claiming that nothing has changed with the department since Floyd’s murder. ↕️

https://twitter.com/BullyCreative/status/1569711484988530689

On Feb 8, Mpls North HS Principal Mauri Friestleben sent a letter to families revealing a student “brandished a gun at another student” that day & the building went into lockdown. A staff member intervened & police were called. The student with the gun fled before cops arrived.↕️

Garraway believes it's a convenient time for cops to reclaim their presence & regain power in public schools, warning “When violence takes place in our schools, it is a prime opportunity for police to get back in our buildings & re-establish their legitimacy… at a moment when… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Not withholding its animosity for educators nor expressing maturity, the local police union (Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis) responded to @MFT59's statement against Minneapolis Police recruiting students in part saying it was "shameful" & gave sarcastic advice. ↕️

The conservative think tank Center of the American Experiment wrote a hit piece about @MFT59 accusing the teachers of pushing their own agenda not rooted in the interests of their students. ↕️

Full story: unicornriot.ninja/2023/minneapol…

@MFT59 Twitter account Crime Watch Mpls, which is run by right-wing activist ​​Shelley Leeson, bashed MFT59 on Twitter and called Minneapolis Public Schools “hate camps.” “Always room for one more hypocrite,” she tweeted two days after the teacher’s statement went public. ↕️

Backlash against local teachers comes at a time when educators across the country are under attack for teaching content that highlights systemic racism throughout American history, which has been labeled “woke” or “critical race theory” (CRT) by conservative ideologues. ↕️

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a likely Republican presidential prospect for 2024, has recently banned AP Black Studies courses in high schools across the state. Other states including Arkansas, North Dakota, Mississippi and Virginia are looking into following Florida’s lead. ↕️

Garraway believes the attack against Black history & so-called ‘CRT’ is directly connected to the recruitment of Black students to “join their ranks” as cops. She said young people learning about structural racism & the ways of the world is one of the greatest threats to power.↕️

After the murder of #TyreNichols by mostly Black policemen in Memphis, the abolitionist educator sees even more people considering a world without police: “I think more than any other event in a while, [Tyre’s murder] has highlighted that Black people can also perpetuate white… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Read the full new report, Minneapolis Teachers Union, Cops Battle Over Student Recruitment, that's featured in thread above & contributed by @peoplepowerpod1, here: unicornriot.ninja/2023/minneapol…